Homeless vets find housing, services in Alameda County through new program

This seems like a compassionate yet sensible program helping military veterans who’ve fallen on hard times. Fremont’s Abode Services is the lead agency:

Earlier this year, Army veteran Maria Lizardo and her family of seven were evicted and took short-term refuge in a Hayward motel room, creeping closer to life on the street.

Ex-Marine Dwayne Clinton, fresh off a 12-year prison sentence, was trying to stay clean and sober while working his way back into society, hoping to end the addiction that led to his problems with the law.

A few months later, both military veterans have homes, job prospects and, perhaps most important, hope. They took separate paths, but their new, life-altering opportunities stem from the same source: the Every Veteran Home program, which helps homeless veterans and their families find housing.

The program started in 2011, when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced it wanted to eliminate veteran homelessness by 2015.

The road to that goal remains steep.

In 2013, nearly 58,000 veterans were homeless, according to a federal report. Alameda County had 492 homeless veterans last year, comprising 11.5 percent of the county’s homeless population.